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roarkLAUGHED

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I am just a few months away from graduate school for Architecture.  My particular school requires that I have a laptop (something I've just been waiting on an excuse to get anyway).  Working on a limited budget (somewhere a little north or south of $1000), what would anyone here suggest as far as brand or model?

 I'm not terribly concerned with having the biggest/fastest/shiniest machine ever.  It seems that the more state-of-the-art the hardware is, the quicker it develops "quirks".  My big concern is reliability.  I have an eMachines desktop (yeah, i know) that has gotten me through all of my undergrad with only one little virus problem the whole time - and it's still going strong.  I'm looking for a bit of an upgrade from the quality level of my desktop.  As far as numbers go, I just need to run Revit, AutoCAD, and the Adobe programs without waiting around. 

I am leaning toward a Sony, just because the non-computer Sony products I have are all exceptional - and it can keep in my price range.  I don't have any vendetta against any particular company - though I've had bad experience with HP/Compaq.  I'm looking into Dell and IBM/Lenovo right now as well.  I will mention that I prefer Windows O.S. (only by a little) and really don't want to Bootcamp an Apple since the hardware is so much more expensive.

 Screen size is not a big deal; I have an old 22in CRT monitor that I'll leave in my studio to jack into.  Compact-ness is good, but not to the point that it makes the machine difficult to use.  12-14 inch screen or so seems to be about right.

For specs, I'm trying to keep in the area of 2g processor (dual-core maybe), 512+ video card, 80+gig HD, 2g RAM, decent CD/DVD drive, and decent audio for basic music playing.  Something easily upgradable would be nice (I really don't have much experience with laptops as far as parts and upgrades go, so I'm thinking upgradable like a desktop is - without too many proprietary parts).  I would like to find something with XP, but I can deal with just installing it myself if it means I don't have to deal with Vista eating all the machine's resources.

Any suggestions?  Let me know what you all have had luck with lately.  Thanks.

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jarosa

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Joined: Mon, Feb 18, 2008
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Autodesk has both minimum system and recomended system requirements for all of their products. Revit is pretty demanding as your files get larger. Shoot for 4 gig ram. I'm not sure whether Revit is able to use duo core or not but the right graphics card is a big plus.

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?siteID=123112&id=8479263

HTH John

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roarkLAUGHED

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I'm not overly worried about the hardware requirements.  My desktop mentioned earlier runs Revit and Photoshop (without an awful amount of slowdown) with a 2.6 processor, a 256 graphics card, and 1.25g RAM.  I have a fairly hard time finding a machine that is worse that I would actually consider buying.

I'm more or less wanting insight (good or bad) as far as brands and models go.

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forgot2yield28

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In my experience, all the computer makers are buying from the same pool of parts.  The only real difference is the little sticker denoting the brand and the price.  I personally beleive that the sony laptops are overpriced, as you can find a better laptop from someone else for the same price as any given vaio laptop.  The biggest thing to watch out for in laptops in things like broken screen hinges which can cause the display to flicker or stop working, cd drives that crap out on you, keyboard keys breaking, speakers no longer functioning...little things that would be a breeze to fix on a desktop computer, but not on a laptop.  So here's my advice:  Buy whatever laptop meets the specs you want at the lowest price, or alternatively, pick a price and find the laptop that offers the most performance for that price.  Then, spend the extra 200-300 bucks on an accidental damage protection plan!!!  I simply cannot stress this enough.  Studio, and college in general, can be tough on a laptop.  You say you're going into a graduate program, so maybe you've had friends while you were an undergrad who had broken screens, motherboards that died out of the blue, who dropped their laptops.  I know I've seen all that and more.  So don't worry about the brand.  They all use the same parts, whatever is cheapest for them at the time, which in the computer industry changes all the time.  Find a good value and then pay for the accidental damage plan!!!!!

 Also, I noticed that in the specs you said you were looking for, you specified an 80 gig hard drive.  I'd say plan on getting a bigger one unless you have an external USB hard drive already.  Revit and photoshop files can get pretty big, and photoshop can be pretty greedy when it comes to temporary files too.  Add on to this your mp3's and movies and all the other crap typical college students keep on their hard drives nowadays and you'd be surprised how fast you can eat up 80 gigs.

Hope this helps, and good luck in the fall. 

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forgot2yield28

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roarkLAUGHED

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